Morphine and other natural opiates have been used for decades as pain relievers. It is well known, however, that the natural opiates have undesirable side effects and may be habit forming. Recently, unnatural opiates, or the (+) opiate enantiomers, have been shown to have important bioactivities that frequently differ from their (−) counterparts. In order to explore the possible benefits of these compounds, there is a need in the art for processes to prepare (+) opiate compounds.